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What effects does mindfulness have on university students' academic performance? Our aim in this empirical study is to analyse the relationship between mindfulness and academic performance, and how it might be explained by the role of compassion and engagement. We hypothesise that mindfulness positively relates to academic performance, and that this relationship is mediated by compassion and engagement. The study sample comprises 210 university students from management degrees, who on graduation are likely to have careers as managers or leaders in organisations. Structural equation modelling reveals that compassion partially mediates the relationship between mindfulness and engagement and, consequently, increases academic performance.

Europe's higher education system is currently undergoing a process of change and convergence in order to guarantee equal conditions for labour mobility within its borders. Spain, like any other European country, must adapt its legislation, homogenize its studies, and raise awareness among its educational institutions (beginning with their teaching staff) of the suitability and benefits that these changes involve. The aim of this article is to present the main results obtained from assessment of this pilot study of adaptation over the last five years. This longitudinal study covered questions such as the usefulness of the Course Guide as a basic resource for the teaching/learning process, and student performance and satisfaction with the new system. (Contains 1 footnote and 7 tables.)

Historically, the relationship between work and organizational psychology and trade union organizations has been one of mutual indifference and neglect. The aim of this study is to explore whether trade union members' social representations of organizational psychology affect their organizations' engagement with this discipline, conditioning their ability to derive benefit from its findings. In a sample of 448 members of the four main trade unions of the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain, social representations of six concepts relating to Psychology or Trade Union Activity were explored using the free association technique. Forty-five categories were created and their frequency and percentages were calculated. In addition, the means of the categories shared by the representations of two different concepts were crossed and statistically tested. Although some associations were found between the representations of the two sets of concepts, most were non-significant. These results highlight that the structure of the representations of Psychology gives only a partial explanation for this lack of connection. The implications of the study and its limitations are discussed, and some recommendations for future research are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the recognition of a new right in the field of labor relations: "the right to disconnect". This right is explained as the connectivity between people by digital means has spread in enterprises as a work tool. This situation is causing a violation of working hours limitations and, thus, upon workers' right to free time. The case being that workers must remain connected to their jobs outside working hours, with all the negative consequences that this entails for their lives, health and family environment. This study examines recent legislation in France --a pioneer country in this regard-- and Spain, which has followed the trend of its neighboring country. We will finish with the case of Chile, where, due to the influence of the aforementioned regulations, there is a legal bill that seeks to enshrine said right into law. The methodology used is that of legal science. We studied the legal sources, both statutory, case law and collective agreements, as well as Chilean and comparative doctrine. The results aim to present a conceptual construction of this right, determine the rights and obligations of the parties, and distinguish the cases where it does not apply. The conclusions emphasize the importance of enshrining this right into law, and, also, that it does not only contemplate the right not to answer, but also the prohibition to send messages outside working hours, except for strict exceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eurozone crisis has triggered profound political and economic changes across the debtor member states. This article shows how the crisis and the imposition of austerity policies by the Troika have (1) forced Spain (and by extension other Eurozone debtor states) to pursue internal devaluation as a means of economic adjustment through the reduction of real wages, (2) increased pressure for liberalizing labor market institutions, and (3) given Spain’s conservative government the opportunity and cover to pursue radical neoliberal labor law reforms. Spain’s 2012 labor law reforms went well beyond external demands. The crisis and the Troika’s policy demands generated mass unemployment, devastated Spain’s Socialist Party, and created the enabling conditions for economic reforms. But domestic partisan considerations led the conservative People’s Party (PP) to commandeer the crisis to weaken unions as the electoral and organizational base of the center-left opposition. The PP channeled reform into an attack on labor that decisively shifted power to employers. As organized labor relations were reduced to concession bargaining, real wages have plummeted for the vast majority of Spaniards, even as mass unemployment and economic stagnation persist. Analysis suggests the emergence of a winner-take-all economy that will have lasting consequences for the Eurozone and the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes one case of trade union struggle in a mid-sized iron and steel company in the province of Cádiz (southern Spain). The authors propose an analytical framework that emphasizes power in the relations between capital and labor. According to them, the sources of labor power must be identified in order to study workers and management tactics. The described episode of a union campaign is used to illustrate management strategies to control the workforce, prevent conflict, and fight unions. The article finally provides a typology of management strategies based on the sort of labor power they aim to counter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article analyzes the institutional framework of collective bargaining in Spain during the 20th century. The work focuses on the formal institutions which were constructed for the interest intermediation between businessmen and workers. The objective is to understand the context in which institutions were created and the dynamics of institutional change. I am referring specifically to the causes of institutional change, what continuities and breaks occurred, which were the relations between the transformation of the collective bargaining system and the evolution of the economy, what actors promoted the changes, or which was the impact of the institutional setting on the living standards of workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Up to the beginning of the 1980s, the Spanish labor market was characterized by rigid labor relations as well as high strike rates, concentrated particularly in women and youth, that denied changes in the entrepreneurial market. From 1984 on, a tendency toward labor flexibility began with the adoption of a legal package that included, among other advantages, the adoption of measures to facilitate entering and leaving a job, stimulate the incorporation of youth, women and those who had been out of work for a long time into the labor market, liberalize temporary work contracts through the rupture of the causal connection, and introduce three types of atypical contracts: the temporary contract to promote employment, the training contract, and the internship contract. Nevertheless, the pursuit of labor flexibility brought insecurity into labor market; furthermore, excessive recurrence to temporary contracting removes the incentive for entrepreneurial investment in training workers, possibly risking a lack of motivation, stagnation or worsening in entrepreneurial productivity and competitiveness. Conclusions were that of all the forms of atypical work, those that are used most and that include a greater percentage of workers are: temporary contracts and part-time contracts. The latter requires the highest degree of social security intervention, mostly in terms of contributions, unemployment protection, and retirement. Likewise, even though at first sight it seems that temporary and part-time contracting only bring advantages for entrepreneurial activity, this is not completely true; these forms of contracting make it possible for persons to enter the labor market who, because they have another type of priorities, such as attention to family life or education, previously would have had to abandon work enter the labor market later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since September 1994, when the Directive 94/45/EC on the creation of European Works Councils came into force, the trajectory followed by their introduction in Spain has been similar to the one in the European Union. However, in spite of such parallel evolution, the coverage rate in the multinational companies with headquarters in Spain or those adhering to Spanish legislation on this subject, has always been lower than the European average. The priority of the Spanish multinational companies towards Latin American markets --with the resulting exemption of the obligation to create a committee with the above characteristics-- but also the existence among Spanish employers of a cultural conception that is particularly reluctant to share control of the company's power with its workers, the persistent «local» vision of collective bargaining and the labour relationship by the Spanish unions, are some of the main causes that surface when it comes to explaining the small degree of development experienced by European Works Councils in Spain in respect of what is happening in the rest of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]